


Right In Front of Me

by Catastrokey (orphan_account)



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Other, Please be safe, Suicidal Ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 09:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14517567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Catastrokey
Summary: He hadn't expected to find meaning in this town. He certainly hadn't expected to find love here. There wasn't supposed to be love here, just pain and misery until he found Jack.





	Right In Front of Me

When Sammy moved to King Falls, the plan was never to stay. He either found Jack or he left on a more permanent basis from everywhere. Staying wasn’t an option that ever even crossed his mind as he rented the first little apartment he could find and threw his overqualified resume at the local radio station owner. 

Staying wasn’t a possibility. Not until Ben Arnold barreled his way into Sammy’s heart. The kid was a damn firecracker that was for sure. He’d busted his way into Sammy’s life like it was just waiting for Hurricane Arnold to make landfall.

He hadn't expected to find meaning in this town. He certainly hadn't expected to find love here. There wasn't supposed to be love here, just pain and misery until he found Jack.

Sammy could admit he’d gotten comfortable. Even as he planned what to do if the worst turned out to be true, he found those plans evolving more and more around the people in King Falls. His will morphed to include more and more people as each new kind soul got suckered into caring for Sammy Stevens. Sometimes he even considered there might be another end for him. The hope of finding Jack would flair as his friends brought light to his life, the sheer fire that began when Ben successfully rescued Emily kept him going for months.

But eventually, even that faded. He’d spent two and a half years trying to untangle the mystery that was King Falls enough to get even an inkling of where Jack was. Then Lily came to town. 

Lily and Jack had been special kinds of people. They always knew when something was a good story they could solve. The Wright talent for unspooling any mystery into it’s key components and solving it easily had left him in awe on more than one occasion. They always just seemed to make connections and deductions at rates that impressed with ease. Sure, a lot of it had been guesswork, but that guesswork was rarely incorrect. The hope he had found in that moment, when Lily came to King Falls determined to solve it’s mysteries, almost overwhelmed his bitterness about her giving up on Jack being alive.

She didn’t change her mind about Jack being dead though. If anything Lily became even more determined to make King Falls mysteries completely mundane and in doing so, dismissed anything that might mean Jack was still alive. Instead, she pursued Grisham and Gunderson and their ilk in an attempt to explain away all the supernatural claims in front of her. 

The voicemail sealed it, though. The moment she said Jack’s name, it came together in Sammy’s worldview. Any other option flew out of the window. As much as he’d come to love some of the people in King Falls, a place he shouldn’t have found any piece at all, Jack was  _ there _ .

For the first time, he was in reach and there was nothing else that could stand in the way of that siren song. 

Jack was there.

So that’s where Sammy would go. 

He knew there was no hope of saving Jack, so the best he could hope for was joining him. Sammy started making plans.

He’d messed up when Frickard outed him. Sammy’d told Ben he was planned to leave too early, given him too many hints as to his plan. Nothing could change his mind but he at least didn’t want Ben to suffer his death. The kid had a big heart and he would take Sammy’s death far too personally. He could just see it spurring Ben into another spiral like when Emily was taken. 

He’d probably had Ben’s inherent optimism to thank for the lack of realization. Ben genuinely thought that if Sammy didn’t stay he would be going somewhere. Lily telling the world about the lack of anything for Sammy to leave for had been a worrying moment but instead of a warning sign, Ben had just incorporated it into his “reasons Sammy should stay” diatribe.

But Sammy was never meant to stay. The job, the apartment, the friends, they were all nothing in the face of what this town had taken from him. They’d held him here much longer than Sammy thought, but eventually, it would never be enough.

Jack haunted his every moment. He’d catch himself turning to say something snarky to empty air. He’d look for a reaffirming face only to find no one there. He’d get halfway through sending a text before remembering the other phone sat in his safe. He’d glance down at his ring finger, aching over the empty space where he’d taken his engagement ring from to keep it safe. Every night he faced his own failures in his nightmares, Jack screaming that he hadn’t helped, he should have helped, he should have been the one taken. 

He found love in King Falls, but he didn’t deserve it. It had distracted him from his real goal. They kept him from doing things before he knew for certain where Jack was, but this wasn’t something that could have been avoided. 

So Sammy turned away from King Falls, put his ring on his hand, and walked into Perdition Wood.


End file.
